Need an easy and fast dinner option? Try Thai Peanut Chicken Stir Fry tonight and SHARE the recipe with your friends!
Thai Peanut Chicken Stir Fry – Easy Meal
After the craziness associated with Christmas, I felt the need to cook up a pan of vegetables, mostly as a penance for all the sweet indulgences I enjoyed. In addition to that, I realized I was way overdue for a new easy meal option. With those two motivators in mind, I dug into my recipe file. The result – this recipe for Thai Peanut Chicken Stir Fry.
Usually I adapt an existing recipe with a few small tweaks to the ingredients or cooking method. This time, I started with a grid of options for stir fry ingredients and a minimum set of cooking instructions. From that point, I interpreted the suggestions into a recipe. But it’s not rocket science. Stir fry is actually quite easy and a very flexible way to create a quick meal. So get creative with these additional suggestions:
Stir Fry Combination
- Chicken with Veggies & Hoisin – chicken, broccoli florets, sliced carrots, water chestnuts and hoisin sauce
- Shrimp & Zucchini – shrimp, chopped zucchini, sliced raw onion, pea pods, halved grape tomatoes, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil
- Quinoa Fried Rice – cooked quinoa, 2 eggs lightly beaten, peas, corn, diced carrot and low sodium soy sauce
Method:
- Make sure all vegetables are cut into evenly sized pieces (avoid using starchy vegetables such as potatoes, squash, beets, etc..)
- If using meat which needs to be cut, be sure to cut into bite-sized pieces no thicker than 1/4″.
- Heat the oil until it is very hot. You want the ingredients to sizzle when they hit the pan.
- Cook protein before adding the vegetables. Remove protein and set aside.
- Add remaining ingredients and saute until veggies are crisp tender. Move and toss the vegetables for even cooking.
- Add protein back into the pan to heat it through, about 2 minutes.
- Add sauce toward the end to so it doesn’t evaporate.
Thai Peanut Sauce
For this recipe I used Leeann Chin Thai Peanut sauce which I found at Cub Foods. If you are not from the Twin Cities, no worries, you can order Leeann Chin Thai Peanut Sauce online. But don’t feel like you need to hunt down this specific product. There are a variety of Asian sauce options available in larger grocery and Oriental specialty stores.
Enjoy this recipe for Thai Chicken Stir Fry or come up with your own customized creation!
Thai Peanut Chicken Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil or more if needed
- 1 clove thinly slice garlic not minced
- 1 lb chicken breast cut into 1″ pieces
- 1 tbsp. minced fresh ginger
- 1 1/2 c. sugar snap peas
- 1 c. red bell pepper cut into 1″ pieces
- 1/3 c. thinly sliced green onion green part only
- 7 oz purchased Thai peanut sauce about 1/2 of a 14 oz bottle
- 1/4 c. chopped peanuts I used dry roasted peanuts
- cooked white rice I used Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice which microwaves in 90 seconds
Instructions
- Heat 2 tbsp. oil in large saute pan or wok, on medium-high to high heat until very hot (a drop of water should sizzle immediately when added to the pain.) Add garlic slices and saute for 20 seconds to flavor oil. Remove garlic from pan to keep it from getting burnt. You can save the garlic and add it back in with the rest of the vegetables for a bold garlic flavor, or discard it if you prefer a milder garlic flavor.
- Add chicken and saute, stirring frequently (If you started on high heat and are getting too much splatter, turn heat down to medium high.) Cook chicken until just barely done, about 3-4 minutes. Note – Chicken will finish cooking when it’s added back into the recipe. Remove chicken from pan and keep warm. A plate or bowl covered with a pan lid works great.
- If pan is a little dry, add another 1/2 – 1 tbsp oil and heat to sizzle level. Add ginger, snap peas and red pepper to pan and saute, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes, or until vegetables are just barely crisp tender.
- Add chicken back to pan, along with green onion and peanut sauce and continue to saute about 2 additional minutes. If the chicken or vegetables are not cooked to your liking, cover and turn down heat for an additional minute or two to finish cooking. Top with chopped peanuts and serve over rice. Enjoy!
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